1. Field of the Art
The present invention relates generally to an image reader for reading images on a surface of a medium, and more particularly an image reader which is capable of reading images within a specified area on the medium surface, by means of a feeding movement of the medium and a reciprocating movement of a reading head in a direction perpendicular to the feeding direction.
2. Related Art Statement
An apparatus for reading images on a sheet of paper or other recording medium is known. Such a known image reading apparatus is designed to read images in the entire area of the recording medium after the dimensions of the medium are specified.
3. Problem Solved by the Invention
However, it is not always necessary to read the entire portion of a recording medium. Sometimes, it is dseired to read only a figure or graph on a document, or to read a limited region of a text, e.g., a given paragraph of a page, for transmitting such information to an external device, combining materials from two or more documents, or for other purposes. In these cases, the user of the known image reader is forced to read the images in the entire area of the medium, and therefore waste time in reading the portions of the medium that are not necessary. Further, the reading the unnecessary portions of the medium results in useless occupation of valuable memory space of the image reader.